There is an increasing adoption of minimally invasive orthopaedic procedures. Because such surgical procedures generally restrict the surgeon's ability to see the operative area, surgeons are increasingly relying on computer systems, such as computer assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS) systems, to assist in the surgical operation.
Computer assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS) systems assist surgeons in the performance of orthopaedic surgical procedures by, for example, displaying images illustrating surgical steps of the surgical procedure being performed and rendered images of the relevant bones of the patient. In particular, computer assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS) systems provide surgical navigation to the surgeon by displaying the relative position of the relevant bones of the patient throughout the orthopaedic surgical procedure. To do so, a reference array is typically coupled to the relevant bone of the patient and registered with the computer assisted orthopaedic surgery system. In computer assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS) systems using optical tracking, the reference arrays provide an optical signal to a camera of the computer assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS) systems. To provide accurate navigation, the camera must have continuous line-of-sight to the reference array. However, in some orthopaedic surgical procedures, such as a Total Shoulder Arthroplasty surgical procedure, the reference array may become obscured from the view of the camera by the body of the patient.